Councillors approve the plan that allocates sites in October, and its published Green Belt evidence dates from 2011. Residents want alternatives tested first.
Residents campaigning against development on the fields north of Swindon Lane have written an open letter to Cheltenham councillors and officers. It asks them not to treat any Green Belt release as settled. The letter was sent to the Journal by the Hyde Lane and Swindon Lane Action Group, which also campaigns as Save Cheltenham Greenbelt.
Its argument is about timing. The group says the moment that decides whether Green Belt land is built on is the moment it is allocated in a plan, not the moment an application is decided.
The council’s own timetable says that moment is next month.
What the letter asks for
The letter makes four requests:
- no significant Green Belt allocation should be treated as inevitable or predetermined while the plan’s spatial strategy, evidence base and reasonable alternatives are still under consideration
- the three councils should show clearly why any Green Belt release is necessary, why that particular location, and what non-Green-Belt alternatives were assessed
- individual development proposals should not pre-empt or determine the strategic choices that belong in the plan
- councillors should have the clearest possible evidence on cumulative effects, including transport, drainage, healthcare, education, biodiversity and landscape, before being asked to support irreversible choices
“Residents should not discover that the crucial decision was effectively made only after a site has already been allocated,” the letter says.
The timetable puts allocations in front of councillors in October
Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury are writing one shared plan, the Strategic and Local Plan. It will set the development strategy and the site allocations for all three areas, and when adopted it replaces the Joint Core Strategy and the Cheltenham Plan.
Cheltenham’s Local Development Scheme, agreed by Cabinet on 14 July 2026 and published on 23 July, sets out the stages:
- evidence gathering and community engagement (Regulation 18): February 2025 to September 2026
- council approvals for the pre-submission plan (Regulation 19): October 2026
- consultation on the pre-submission plan: end of October or early November to December 2026
- submission to the Secretary of State: December 2026
The hearings, the inspector’s report and adoption are all listed as to be confirmed.
That is the point the letter turns on. The Regulation 18 stage, the one where alternatives are still open, closes this month. The plan that names the sites goes to councillors next.
The published Green Belt evidence is from 2011
The plan’s evidence and documents page lists dozens of studies, many of them published in November 2025. Under the heading “Existing Evidence” there is one entry for Green Belt: the Joint Core Strategy Green Belt Assessment of September 2011.
No newer Green Belt study has been published there. The definition of what counts as Green Belt has moved twice since that assessment was written. The December 2024 National Planning Policy Framework introduced “grey belt”, and the Framework published on 17 August 2026 widened it again by dropping the exclusion for land with environmental or flood constraints. Councils elsewhere have had their Green Belt assessments reissued as a result, with far more land falling inside the grey belt category.
The site: 40 hectares between two lanes
The land the group formed around sits between Hyde Lane and Swindon Lane on the northern edge of the town. Blenheim Strategic Partners LLP and Galliard (Cheltenham) Ltd asked the council on 21 May 2026 for a formal opinion on whether a scheme there would need a full environmental assessment. The papers are on the register as 26/00833/SCREEN.
Their own screening report describes the site:
- around 40 hectares of greenfield land, currently farmed as two large fields and four smaller ones
- “the site is designated Green Belt”, in the report’s own words
- bounded by the Bristol to Birmingham main line to the west, Swindon Lane to the south and Hyde Lane to the north east
- crossed by a watercourse, by overhead power lines on pylons, and by a public right of way that forms part of the Cheltenham Circular route
- around 750 homes proposed, with roughly 20 hectares of open space, four accesses and no general vehicle access onto Swindon Lane
No planning application for the land had been registered as of 18 September 2026.
The council’s head of planning has already answered the cumulative question
The developers’ consultants concluded that the scheme was “not likely to generate significant environmental effects”. Cheltenham Borough Council disagreed. The screening opinion, signed by head of planning Chris Gomm and issued on 11 June 2026, requires an Environmental Statement with any future application.
Two reasons are given. One is traffic: “Highway capacity issues are a significant issue in Cheltenham and surroundings”, and the trips from around 750 homes make a significant impact likely “even with mitigation”.
The second is the one the open letter asks for. The opinion says the cumulative impacts of the multiple housing and mixed-use developments on the edge of Cheltenham, taken together with this scheme, are “likely to amount to a significant environmental effect in EIA terms”. It names cumulative highway impacts, cumulative urbanising and landscape impacts, and cumulative impacts on community facilities, “particularly health and education”.
The council’s own record, in other words, already says the cumulative effects are likely to be significant.
Cllr Richard Lawler wrote to the council on the same file on 26 May. He argued that the roads around the site are “lower-order local routes” constrained by rail infrastructure. He listed a railway bridge on Hyde Lane, level crossing barriers on Swindon Lane and a single-lane bridge arrangement on Swindon Road.
What happened at Home Farm shows how quickly that can be undone
Just across the railway line, in Swindon Village, the same sequence has already run its course. It ended differently.
Northern Trust Land Ltd asked the council to screen a scheme for up to 165 homes on 12.62 hectares at Home Farm, Quat Goose Lane, in Swindon Village. On 23 March 2026 the council issued a screening opinion saying a full assessment was required (26/00401/SCREEN).
The applicant then went over the council’s head. On 30 April it asked the Secretary of State for a screening direction, which overrides the local authority’s view. The Planning Casework Unit at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government answered on 29 June 2026. It directed that the scheme is not development requiring an environmental assessment.
On cumulative effects, the written statement of reasons considers one other scheme. That is Elms Park, the approved neighbourhood for up to 4,115 homes about 600 metres away. Its conclusion: “The SoS considers that there are no cumulative effects likely to be significant.”
The outline application was validated the following day, 30 June. It is 26/00466/OUT, the register still lists it as open for comments, and its determination deadline is Tuesday 29 September 2026. The formal consultation period ended on 13 August.
The council that decides may not exist for long
The letter also notes the uncertainty over local government in Gloucestershire. The government decided in July 2026 to replace the county’s seven councils with a single unitary authority from April 2028, then paused the programme in September along with several others. Cheltenham Borough Council remains the planning authority in the meantime, and it is Cheltenham councillors who are asked to approve the pre-submission plan next month.
What it means for you
- The Home Farm application for up to 165 homes has a determination deadline of 29 September 2026. Its formal consultation period closed on 13 August, but the planning register still lists it as open for comments while it is undetermined.
- The formal chance to comment on site allocations across the borough is the Regulation 19 consultation, expected from the end of October to December. That is the stage at which representations go to the government’s inspector, so it is the one that carries weight.
- Sign up for notifications on the Strategic and Local Plan site if you want to know when the pre-submission plan is published.
- Nothing has been proposed for the Hyde Lane and Swindon Lane land through an application yet. If one comes, it must be accompanied by a full Environmental Statement, unless the Secretary of State is asked to say otherwise.
We track applications, decisions and appeals across the borough on our Cheltenham planning news page.
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